Tristan Werner showed up on Tuesday to do some more cleaning on Richard West's Cherokee, in preparation for his checkout in the airplane, which in turn will allow him to fly Young Eagles, from which group he himself graduated not too long ago. The flight check awaits the return of Pete Grootendorst, rumored to be on an Alaskan trip. I'm sure Tristan is looking forward to getting into the air once more.

Something that did get into the air this week was Mark Albert's RV-3, after the repair of the leaky wing tank and various other less demanding improvements. Once again it was piloted by Matt Jerjencic, whose familiarity with flying his RV-8 made him a good choice as test pilot. After careful inspection, an engine run-up,and all being well, he departed from 26R after a cautious application of power and modest climb angle. Remaining in the pattern, he made his first landing smoothly, then applied power for a go around. Eventually he made five or six touch and goes, so he clearly felt pretty confident about the airplane handling. Leaving the pattern for the practice area, he checked out some speeds: power vs. IAS, stall speeds and so on. On return, he reported everything normal. Now, it remains for Mark to renew his tail-dragger time, then, at last, he will be able to check out his airplane himself.

Meanwhile, I occupied myself installing some wiring in my RV-3 preparatory to testing my recently acquired, (used) Lowrance 1000 GPS. Although technologically ancient, it does everything I need, (once I can figure it all out) and you can read it in sunlight. - a great advantage. They really made them in those days!

The weather on Saturday's general membership meeting day, started out with a low overcast, not, however low enough to prevent Joe Pribilo from arriving in his Luscombe through the murk; he must have a special arrangement with the tower operator to allow his very marginal approach. It was only much later that we had more fly-ins: the tundra-tired PA-12, Tom Gentil's beautiful Great Lakes, Jamie Baxter in his Grumman Cheetah, and a sprinkling of regulars.

Breakfast was hosted as ever by Kevin Roche, ably assisted by Ted Krohne and Gary List, although no one has apparently mastered the art of the waffle maker after the departure of Chuck Stiles; will we have to wait until his return in November to enjoy waffles again?

After opening the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, President Gene Hubbard's call for visitors resulted in four or five responses – an unusually high number. By this time, including them, we had about forty in attendance. Gene reiterated the need for a large turn-out of members at the SDM master plan meeting on the 24th to balance the business flying interests sure to be present. Mark Albert, YE coordinator, reported 237 flights so far this year - sure to be many more with the upcoming Ramona open house. Chapter 14 will have a Young Eagles booth there, with activities for the kids to keep them amused and educated. To this end, Mark and Rich Czarniecki are modifying Rich's make-a-box demonstration to decrease the through-put time.

A brief word on the presentation for the month: Reg Finch had to cancel, and will reschedule for later in the year; In his place we had a talk about a team re-creating the trail of Lewis and Clark from Ohio to the Pacific coast by air. Much too much to describe here, unfortunately - space is running out.